Detroit police chief defends Allen Iverson in $2.5 million lawsuit

(CBS) - Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. has become involved in a $2.5 million civil lawsuit that accuses the former Detroit Pistons star Allen Iverson of instigating a bar fight that left one man with a permanent eye injury, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Godbee, who was retired from the police department at the time and running his own consulting firm, was reportedly one of Iverson's bodyguards on the night of the April 2009 incident and a key defense witnesses in the case.

Guy Walker Jr, the plaintiff, claims one of Iverson's bodyguards attacked him the the VIP section of the South Beach Pizza Bar in Detroit, according to the Free Press.

The lawsuit reportedly also claims Iverson did nothing to stop the fight, but he slipped out of the club with his entourage while the brawl ensued.

Although Godbee says in his affidavit that Iverson was hurried out of the bar when the fight erupted, the police chief claims the man allegedly involved in the brawl, Iverson's co-defendant Antwuan Cilsey, was not working for Iverson that night, according to the Free Press.